Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to electronic systems, and in particular, to radio frequency (RF) electronics.
Description of the Related Technology
Radio frequency (RF) power amplifiers can be used to boost the power of a RF signal having a relatively low power. Thereafter, the boosted RF signal can be used for a variety of purposes, included driving the antenna of a transmitter.
Power amplifiers can be included in mobile devices to amplify an RF signal for transmission by the antenna. To maximize the power transfer from the amplified RF signal to the antenna, which can also be characterized as minimizing signal reflections from the antenna into the amplified RF signal, RF circuits typically employ impedance matching. The maximum signal power is delivered into the antenna when the impedance of the antenna is equal to the impedance of the power amplifier.
Further, RF circuits typically employ filters to enable the desired frequencies to be passed through the circuit, while rejecting those that are not needed. Thus, power amplifiers, such as those in mobile devices, are often associated with output matching networks (OMNs) that are optimized to match the impedance of the antenna and filters that are optimized to reject signals with frequencies that are not intended to be transmitted or received by the antenna.